Wednesday Skull Session

By Vico on January 15, 2014 at 6:00 am
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Wednesday's Skull Session will offer some commentary on things happening around the world of college sports. Yesterday was definitely eventful for Ohio State football, but in a good way.

Contrast this week's session with the one I wrote last week for Wednesday morning. That particular feature was dedicated to the discovery of Noah Spence testing positive for, of all things, ecstasy. It also included a report that Ohio State's first verbal commitment in its 2015 recruiting class may be in jeopardy of making it into that recruiting class for unspecified "off the field" reasons.

This week's feature will start with a discussion of two outstanding additions to Urban Meyer's coaching staff for the 2014 season, and the fallout from it.

 TWITTER REACTIONS TO CHRIS ASH AND LARRY JOHNSON, SR. The big news yesterday concerned the report that Urban Meyer had already found replacements for Everett Withers and Mike Vrabel. We knew Withers was en route to James Madison to take that head coaching gig, though the timing of the announcement and subpar performance of his unit raises an interesting question about his position on the coaching staff notwithstanding. Vrabel's departure last week was much more unexpected and all the more unfortunate.

Meyer has already found replacements for both in Chis Ash and Larry Johnson, Sr. Much has already been said about these two from Ohio State fans all too eager to have them. What are some other reactions?

We'll start with the reactions to Chris Ash, who is joining Urban Meyer's staff after one year with Bert at Arkansas. Ash was previously with him in Wisconsin for three years. Bert's Twitter statements belie his likely reaction.

Bert's an easy villain to knock down, but his statement here is truly laughable. If you recall correctly, his departure from Wisconsin was precipitated by the defection of six assistants after the 2011 season. The loss of guys like DelVaughn Alexander (Arizona State), Bob Bostad (Tampa Bay Buccaneers), Paul Chryst (Pittsburgh, head coach), Demontie Cross (Texas Christian), Joe Rudolph (Pittsburgh), and Dave Huxtable (Pittsburgh) were important. If losing Alexander to a return to the West Coast (well: Pac 12) and Chryst to a head coaching gig were fait accomplis, losing the core of his assistant coaching staff was not. A major point of contention that emerged between Bielema and Barry Alvarez concerned assistant coach salaries that Alvarez was reticent to increase.

The end result was disastrous for the 2012 Badgers, though it was afforded a Big Ten championship by virtue of Ohio State and Penn State being ineligible. The 2012 Badgers finished 8-6 and Bert found himself admiring how Arkansas' athletic director was running his department.

Following a 9-loss first season in Fayetteville, Bert is already feeling attrition again. Charlie Partridge, who followed him from Madison to Fayetteville, left for the head coaching gig at Florida Atlantic. Chris Ash is now en route to Columbus, Ohio. Randy Shannon's status is in limbo as well. He's a rumored addition to Bobby Petrino's coaching staff in Louisville.

Elsewhere, reactions to Chris Ash have him pegged as a natural complement to Ohio State's coaching staff and a rising star in the profession.

This section focused more on Ash, mostly because I found him more the surprising addition. I did not see his name previously when replacements for Withers started to emerge in popular discussion. It is very probable that Tom Herman put in a good word for him. Herman and Ash were on Iowa State's coaching staff in 2009. In fact, Herman's comments about Ash after the 2012 overtime win against the Badgers were glowing.

We know a lot about Larry Johnson, Sr. He is one of the best defensive line coaches in college football and arguably the most proficient recruiter on the Eastern Seaboard. Replacing what was a great gamble in Mike Vrabel with a sure commodity like Larry Johnson, Sr. is as good as it gets for Ohio State.

With that in mind, I found some of the reactions from former Penn State players to be very interesting. Here are two examples.

Saying that Larry Johnson, Sr. is a fantastic hire for Ohio State may not be a strong enough superlative.

WATCH ASH AND JOHNSON, SR. DISCUSS THEIR CRAFT. The second item for the day will provide videos for Ohio State fans to watch and see the new additions to the coaching staff speak a bit about their coaching philosophies, schemes, and practice techniques. We'll start with Chris Ash discussing how to stop run games from a base 4-3. As defensive coordinator for Wisconsin in 2012, Ash was successful at precisely this in the overtime loss against Ohio State. Here, he talks about some of his philosophy.

 

 

In this video, Ash also speaks of defending the option from a Cover 2, or the multiple variations of the same concept.

 

 

Finally, here is footage from BTN of Larry Johnson, Sr. discussing his practice techniques. Knowing little of the nuts and bolts of Larry Johnson, Sr. as coach and recruiter (really only inferring from results), I nevertheless knew the techniques he preaches are peculiar. If you saw these defensive linemen drills and didn't know who was teaching them, you'd think the coach responsible was either insane or a mad scientist with a outside-the-box method. In the case of Larry Johnson, Sr., it's more the latter than the former.

 

 

Max BulloughMax Bullough, not doing this in St. Petersburg.

MUM'S THE WORD FOR MAX BULLOUGH. The third item for this morning will shift gears from Chris Ash and Larry Johnson, Sr. to Michigan State football alumnus Max Bullough. The All-B1G linebacker was ignominiously suspended for the 2014 Rose Bowl for an unspecified violation of team rules, ending his career in green and white.

That Bullough comes from a family dynasty of Spartans, as well having a younger brother on the team and another en route to East Lansing in this year's recruiting class, made it that much more interesting. That Michigan State had made that Rose Bowl moment such a priority made it that much more unfortunate for the heart and soul of Michigan State's defense. Michigan State was ultimately fine without him in Pasadena, perhaps making what led to the suspension an uninteresting question for everyone involved.

At the least, Bullough doesn't want to talk about it. He's currently in St. Petersburg, Florida for the East-West Shrine Game.

Thus, the only newsworthy item for Bullough is that he arrived in St. Petersburg curiously 20 pounds over his listed weight of 245 pounds. He may not want to talk about the suspension in front of the media, but he certainly will need to do so in front of the personnel for any interested NFL team.

The game will be played this Saturday on the NFL Network.

MISCELLANY. Indiana hands Wisconsin its first loss of the season... Florida basketball has won 25-straight home games, the most in school history... Free Purdue for a good home. No givesies backsies... Jim Caldwell gets recycled as NFL head coach, now with the Detroit Lions... As a result, Ron Prince may not get a chance to be #B1G after all... Georgia hires Florida State's defensive coordinator... Oregon man finds rare Nike prototype shoe... On baseball's "War on Drugs"... Kliff Kingsbury, among other things, gives his top five rap songs...

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